Disappointing 40

I shot 40 in league last night and was very disappointed. I hit about as well as I ever have and could have had a much better score. Unfortunately I 3-putted twice, missing 3-footers both times (one for bogey, the other for double) and couldn't get up and down from a bunker on 8 (the other double). The other 6 were pars. I missed several makable birdie putts. Really feel like I missed a golden opportunity. At least I hit the ball well and hopefully I can build on that.

I ended up shooting 33 net, but that wasn't even close to winning low net for the night as Retro continued his good play from Whistling Straits, shooting a 47 for a 27 net. He won't be getting 20 strokes next week, that's for sure. Should be in the 13 range.

Not sure about playing this weekend, maybe Sunday, we'll see how it goes. On Saturday we're taking my mom to Mama Mia at the Overture Center, then rushing home to meet up with my sister and her husband to go to the Brewers/Marlins game. Gonna be a hectic day. Cdubya was a little disappointed that Dontrelle Willis isn't pitching Saturday night as the D-Train is her favorite pitcher. He's pitching on Sunday instead.

Toe Socks

Japanese baseball players have brought many things to American baseball, such as bowing on the field, increased sushi sales and now these things. Apparently they are great for wearing your shower thongs and American players have started wearing them too, citing increased traction and a more snug feeling...

Maybe I should check into these for golf and hockey.

4 ounces is too much to bear

Saturday was our trip to Whistling Straits. The day started out beautifully, blue skies, 60 degrees, couldn't have been nicer. I decide at the car that carrying my rain jacket, all 4 oz of it, was overkill, it wasn't going to rain (despite the forecast calling for rain). No reason to carry that extra weight for 5 hours, so I toss it back in the car. 3 hours later I was dreading that decision as a cold rain and wind blew in and, wearing only shorts and a dry-fit golf shirt, I was freezing my ass off. Shivering between shots, I didn't fare too well on those last few holes. I ended up shooting 50-52 for 102, good for 4th out of 8, with Dr. Mike beating me by a stroke and winning most of the money.

The best golfer among us shot 86, while Jim had a 92 and Mark a 96. Retro played the best I've seen him play ever, until the 14th (his nemesis) where he took a 10 and came unglued and finished with a 111. Still, it was enjoyable to see him hitting the ball consistently.

Cdubya and I have been talking about her starting to golf again and I went to take a look at her clubs yesterday morning and they just aren't what she needs. It's a full set and she doesn't need all those clubs or all those hard to hit irons. I started doing research and found that Adams makes a 7 club set made for beginning women that looked perfect. It has a driver (460cc head, 13.5 degree loft), a fairway wood, 3 hybrid clubs (called "long hybrid", "mid hybrid" and "short iron"), a wedge and a putter. Also comes with a bag and they come in pink. Here is a link to the set.

We went over to Golf Galaxy and she tried them out and hit them pretty well, especially considering she hadn't picked up a club in at least 3 years. We got them, some new shoes and a push cart. We then went out to the Door Creek Executive 9 (par 30) to give them a try. Retro came along. She started out the first hole (108 yards) by hitting her driver over the green. She played pretty well, considering, but struggled with the putter a little. We'll need to go practice some more (which she doesn't really like doing). She ended up shooting a 60. I had a 36 and Retro had a 42. I didn't really hit any good shots but putted and chipped pretty well. I made a 25 foot putt from the fringe on the first hole to save par and chipped two others to within a foot. I hit only 1 green. Oh well, it was fun to have her back playing again. Now I have another excuse to go golfing!

Whistling Straits take 5

Tomorrow will be my 5th trip to play the Irish Course at Whistling Straits since last spring. We have our typical group of 8, with a couple of new additions this year. Unfortunately, with the Grinder's impending move of death, he will be forced into skipping this year.

I'll be attempting to better my 98 from September. It all comes down to not taking a 12 on the last hole! That thing has kicked my ass every single time.

Weather forecast looks a touch iffy but I think we'll be ok.

Retro and I are heading out to play 9 at noon today as another tune up (god knows he needs it! and yes, I know he'll read that, I'm trying to make him cry). The Titleist whore bought another Titleist club yesterday at Dick's, a 3 wood. Seems like every time I go to buy some more golf balls, he gets another club. Personally, he couldn't hit it straight with a baseball bat, not sure how these clubs help him. :)
(you crying yet, Retro?)

The Big Bet

My friend Retro has been scuffling on the golf course and even went so far as to cancel playing last weekend and went to take another lesson.

He was sure it paid off and his swing was working great. In fact, he was so jacked up about it he was convinced he would crush me in league last night. So convinced, in fact, that he was willing to bet a pitcher of beer on it. I was not quite so convinced and said I would give him some strokes. We agreed on 5 1/2 (I had beaten him by 13 each of the first 2 weeks).

We teed off the 10th hole and Retro hammered one right down the middle and was almost giggling like a school girl who just heard a juicy secret. I followed by cutting the corner and getting about 50 yards closer, not quite in the fairway though. His second shot went left and I put mine on the fringe. Unfortunately I ended up 3 putting and we both double bogeyed the hole.

On 11 I bogeyed and he doubled again. On the 12th tee box I whispered to Pat that it was time for the implosion and sure enough Retro hooked one into the pond, took a drop and hit it god knows where and had to take another drop. I 3-putted again for bogey while he took an 8.

I gave him an opening on 13 as I hooked my tee shot into the pond and then hooked my 3rd shot into the high grass and lost the ball. Meanwhile he duffed his second shot then hit his 3rd into the high grass but I happened to see his while I was looking for mine. Unfortunately for him he hit it short then over then back over again, finally managing a 9 while I had an 8. We both doubled 14 and then it all ended.

I went double, par, par, bogey to finish while he threw some big crooked numbers up and when it all ended I had posted a horrendous 49 (with 5 3-putts) but it was still enough to beat his god-awful 60.

I guess it's time to go back for another lesson.

He gets another chance at me on Friday as we'll play 9 as a warm up to Whistling Straits on Saturday. There's an outside chance he could shoot over 130 Saturday. I can't wait to see that. :)

By the way, I have renamed Thursday to be "Day of a thousand excuses". So far, he's only had 2: (1) "I was off my game" and (2) "I was distracted by the beer cart."

Update: One more excuse: "I was too nervous".

Also, I failed to mention that my league partner, King Erik, crushed me with a 46. About time he started playing better, my back was getting sore from carrying him! :)

Everyone gets the NFL Alumni Gear

I totally forgot to mention something about Friday's golfing.

Since we were only a 3-some they added a single to our group. Walking to the tee box I see a ginormous black man waiting. I introduce myself, his name is Art. He has a golf shirt, golf bag, golf towel and assorted other goodies that all say "NFL Alumni".

So of course, I'm thinking this dude played in the NFL. I'm not stupid... :)

After a couple holes of guessing, Barry asks him about it. He said he played for the Falcons and was a Badger in the 80's and a linebacker. He hits the crap out of the ball, still in excellent shape. I put him at about 45-48 years old.

But of course, did any of us ask his last name? Nooo... so, on to google I go when I get home. It took a LOT of digging but I found him.

Art Price. Played 1 season for Atlanta in '87 but didn't play in any games (or at least didn't register any stats). He played 4 years for the Badgers and signed as an undrafted free agent.

In 1992 he was part of the America's Cup sailing crew. His bio there says he was an ex-NFL player, current firefighter and professional model.

Some more digging and I found that he is currently a division chief for the Madison Fire Department.

But he still has all that NFL gear... so I guess that's his greatest accomplishment.

He had to quit after 9 holes to go pick up his kids from school. I guess the NFL Alumni Association doesn't provide free limo service for their players' kids.

Hitting Greens, Missing Putts

As my friends know all too well, I am not a good putter. I tend to miss easy short putts and turn birdie attempts into bogeys far too frequently.

That trend continued this weekend as I had 35 putts Friday (20 on the front with 4 3-putts) and 37 Saturday. On the bright side I seem to be doing well 2 putting from a long distance and my long putts are not that bad. On the down side, I seem to have no ability to make a straight 5 foot putt, including one for birdie Saturday.

I did read something this morning that might indicate what my problem is. Basically getting my arms too far away from my body which makes them go every which way instead of being locked into a single unit with my chest and shoulders. I'll go practice keeping my arms in tight and see if that helps some. I know that the short game is an area where I can improve greatly and cut a lot of strokes off my score and I do practice it more than I practice hitting full shots so it's not for a lack of effort.

Both days I shot a 94 (48-46 Friday and 47-47 Saturday). I thought I played much better on Saturday, playing a course that's a little more difficult. I hit 7 fairways, 8 greens in regulation and had 7 pars. Unfortunately the other 11 holes pretty much stunk. Averaged double bogeys there. If I turn them into bogeys I shoot 83. I tried 3 times in a row to tee the ball high and hover my driver behind it, trying to make sure I swept the ball off the tee and all three times I rocked back and ended up topping all 3. Went back to my normal tee height and went back to bombing drives. My best 2 drives were a long par 5 dogleg right where I cut the corner big time and left myself only 148 for my 2nd shot and the 18th hole where we had the wind at our back and I hit one 325.

As for the new irons, I am crushing most of them way farther than I expected. On Friday I hit a 5 iron dead into the wind uphill from 163 and flew over the green. On Saturday I had a 133 9 iron and a 148 8 iron that both flew well over the green. I think maybe I wasn't taking the wind into consideration enough on those. My gap wedge is a little short right now, still trying to figure out what the full distance is for that. All in all, I love hitting them, love the trajectory and the ball flight, it's all good, I'll get it figured out.

This Saturday is our 8-man trip to the Irish Course at Whistling Straits. Time to get my shit together.

Stupid Rain

All day I watched the radar as the weather prognosticators were predicting late afternoon and evening scattered t-storms. It looked like it was going to be close and of course, a pretty good storm hit right about 5:00 when we were supposed to start golf league. By 5:30 all was clear and the sun was out but by then all the leagues had canceled for the night.

We ended up going out anyway and playing 9. I was itching to get out with the new irons and have a whack with them. I hit a really nice 4 iron from under a tree on the first hole and had a few good shots with them. I hit a few shots that hooked more than I expected and I did shank one on a severe downhill lie that was a difficult shot. I'm anxious to get right back out again and will be playing Friday and Saturday.

I parred the first 2 holes then 3 putted for bogey on the 3rd. I ended up shooting 45, taking a triple bogey on the last hole as I was rushing because I had to piss like a race horse... oh well, not horrible, not great. I didn't putt well, that's for sure. I need to spend some more time on the practice green.

Pictures of Guinness

Here are a few pics I took this past weekend of our new baby...


Here's one of Guinness and Delaney relaxing in the shade.


I have more but ran out of time to post them.

Mizuno MX-25's

I finally got around to trading in my 2002 Callaway Big Bertha irons for a new set of Mizuno MX-25's. First forged set of irons I've had, I look forward to playing them for many years.

I was fitted for the first time as well and learned that my clubs have had the wrong lie angle all along. I am having these bent 3 degrees flat. Turns out I was hitting the heal first which would explain a lot.

I'm picking them up tomorrow night (just in time for league on Wednesday, yikes).

I also realized that tomorrow is our 19th wedding anniversary, which somehow I forgot (typical man I guess). I was reminded when Cdubya told me she planned to give me a gift certificate to Golf Galaxy for our anniversary, at which point all sorts of alarms went off in my head. At least I still have today to figure out what to do for her.

---

On Saturday, Dr. Mike and I played in a 2 man scramble at Door Creek. We came out blazing, with a birdie on the first hole. Never got another one and shot 78 gross, with a 68 net. We never really made any putts and that's what a scramble usually comes down to.

New Addition

Cdubya was looking around the humane society websites yesterday when she came across a 1 year old female border collie that looked eerily like Sazi. She called and found out that she was a stray that someone found and brought in. They named her Hope. She filled out their application and we went to see her after work.

Delaney has just been a complete mess since Sazi left us. Wouldn't do anything, no eating, no fetching the paper, always scared of everything. She needed a companion.

We took Delaney to go meet Hope and see how things worked. They hit it off right away. Hope was very similar to Sazi in many aspects. She was way more mellow than Delaney and loved to be hugged and petted (Delaney doesn't care for that sort of nonsense). We fell in love with her right away and Delaney, while she didn't show direct affection, you could tell that she felt more "normal" having a sister around her.

We completed the adoption (only $93 and they had her spade and microchipped, plus they gave us $500 in medical insurance in case our vet found anything wrong) and brought her home with us. She, like Delaney, is a great car rider. Hopped right up into the back of the Murano and laid down for the hour ride home.

Once we got her home I showed her the back yard and she explored the fence line (maybe looking for escape routes?). She was very good and got along with Delaney and our stupid cat just fine. I'm pretty sure her old home had a doggy door as she seemed confused by going in through an open door. We'll have to work on that. She did let us know when she needed to go out by banging her head on the back screen door trying to open it. We'll need to work on that. I don't think her old family put much effort into her training. She begged for food a little as we ate (quietly though) and is not really good with her commands yet. Delaney was trying to help her by doing each command as I gave them so she could see what to do. Either that or she was just showing off how smart she is. It's probably the latter.

At night she went and slept in front of the front door and we didn't hear a peep from her the whole night. When I got up though, she was lying in my chair. She's definitely a couch potato and loves to lay in your lap and be held.

I canceled my golf this afternoon and Cdubya stayed home with her to get her acclimated more. Not sure if we'll need to kennel her while we're gone or not, we'll find out soon enough. We'll be going to get her a new collar, leash and tag this afternoon and then taking her for a walk around the neighborhood so she can learn her surroundings. I'm very excited about our new addition and look forward to training her and teaching her to catch a frisbee like Delaney (so far she doesn't seem to be interested in toys).

Oh, I forgot. Since the humane society named her and she didn't really respond to Hope anyway, we decided to change her name. After many discussions I suggested Guinness, of course. We're going to try that for today and see how it takes. I started calling her by that last night and it seemed to work for me.

Here is a picture the humane society took of her. I'll have lots more this weekend.

3 Foot Putt

That's all that separated me from a 39 last night in golf league. And of course, I played it left edge to break right and it stayed straight. My only 3 putt of the night and ended up with a 40, which I'm still really happy with but I told everyone before I left work that I was going to shoot a 39. We played the back 9 at Door Creek.

I started out the night poorly, hitting a tree with my 2nd shot on the first hole and having to take a drop from under a tree on the 3rd hole but I managed to bogey those first 3 and felt pretty good about that.

I parred the 4th hole and bogeyed the 5th before parring the 6th and 7th. On the 8th I made a really nice flop shot from well right of the green (par 5) to get to 15 feet and made the putt for birdie. I knew I just needed a par on the last hole for 39 at that point. I hit a long drive that drew a little left just off the fairway. Hit a nice wedge to about 18 feet and thought I had the putt but it leaked a little left and caught the left edge of the cup but didn't fall, setting me up for the 3 foot par putt for 39. Everyone else had already putted and I saw a break in every one of them. Of course mine didn't and I knew I should have just taken the Erik approach and rammed it straight into the cup. Maybe it was the 4 beers I had while playing that made me think erroneously. Oh well.

I did win the low-net prize for the 2nd straight week ($10), a nice added bonus.

I'm feeling pretty good about my game right now. Playing 18 tomorrow at the Bridges after work and have a 2 man scramble with Dr. Mike at Door Creek on Saturday (Cdubya claims I did not tell her about this and was kind of pissy last night, but it's just her not listening).

And how about those Brewers?!?!?!? Unbelievable. They have a tough next month, we'll see how they look coming out of that.

Rollerblading with Delaney

I hobbled into work today, feeling every day of my 42 years. You see, I decided it would be fun to take Delaney out for a run with me on my rollerblades Saturday morning before heading out to a bowling tournament. As I started down the sidewalk I thought to myself "it would be fitting if I crashed and hurt my wrist or hand right before the tourney."

With that in mind we went on our adventure through the neighborhood. All was going well with Delaney was following right behind me, occasionally running ahead a little and circling me, until we turned back towards home. There was a slight downhill and I was coasting. For some reason Delaney got a little bit spooked (she doesn't like weird noises) and ran out in front of me. I realized we were going too fast and there was a 90 degree turn coming up in about 4 houses. I started to drag my right skate to slow down (I don't have brakes) and that noise freaked her out even more and she accelerated to full speed.

Now I've got to make a split second decision as my dog is running 20 mph towards a sharp turn dragging me along. In hind sight, I made the wrong decision. Something in my brain said skate into the grass. It was almost the right choice but I did it all wrong. I took 2 or 3 big steps in the grass and hit a driveway, at which point I lost the leash and went ass over tea kettle, landing on my hand (of course) and scraped up my knee and smashed my shoulder pretty good.

Delaney, now free of me but with a retractable leash bouncing behind her, freaking her out even more, bolted like she was breaking from the gates in the Kentucky Derby. By the time I got back to my feet (with a guy watching in amazement) she had turned the corner and was out of sight. I scrambled to the corner in time to see her cross one intersection and continue down the street. I took off as fast as I could go down the road screaming for her to stop. She didn't hesitate and raced down the sidewalk, crossing 2 more intersections at breakneck speed as I prayed no cars would be popping out. She continued on all the way home, turned into the driveway and ran right up to the door to the house where she sat, panting and waiting for me. It turned out ok but we had a long talk about not running away and we probably won't be doing that again. We had done it a few times before without incident so it's not like she was confused over the whole thing.

Anyway, back at home I showered and checked out my injuries. I knew the worst was to come as my body doesn't appreciate doing barrel rolls on concrete any more. My hand was not in great shape but I picked up a bowling ball and it wasn’t horrible, so I headed to the tournament.

It was a free tournament for everyone in the area that had bowled a 300 game. If you bowl another one in games 1 or 2 you win $10,000. Of course the lanes were shit and there was no chance anyone was going to get one. I had 2 splits, 2 washouts and missed 2 10 pins in the first game for a whopping 125. Followed up that with a 188, burying a 7-10 split on my last ball and called it a day. There was no reason to continue. At least I didn't pay anything for it and got a free shirt.

On Sunday I got up at 6 to go golfing. I could barely get out of bed. My shoulders and neck hurt so much I had to hang from a door frame to try to loosen up. I popped a few advil and headed out. In the parking lot we saw Green Bay Packer right tackle Mark Tauscher drive up. He ended up being in the group in front of us. We watched him play in the weeds, woods, high grass, the whole day. Good thing he's a better blocker than golfer.

I struggled to get loose but didn't play terribly. Ended up shooting 91 (48/43) with 6 pars. I did hit some very good shots but also had some bad luck with unplayable lies.

After I went home and showered and started to stiffen up. About an hour later I could barely move. My neck and shoulders were so tight it hurt to move at all. So, here I sit, 2 days later, in the same condition.

Good thing I just sit on my ass at work...

Working for the weekend

So far, not enjoying Friday, which is odd since it's always a great day.

I took yesterday afternoon off to take advantage of a free round of golf at Trappers Turn, an Andy North designed course in Wisconsin Dells. Thus I have to work a full day today, which I'm not used to. Golf did not go that well. I opened with triple, double, triple and set the tone for the whole day. Ended up shooting a 97 (49,48). It was pretty ugly.

Looked at the lawn last night, just mowed Saturday and the back is already 6" high. Gotta get on that tonight. :(

Tomorrow morning I'm bowling in a tournament for all the bowlers in the area with 300 games this year. Winner of the tourney gets $500 but the big attraction is that if you bowl another 300 in the first or second games you get $10,000. Unfortunately from what I've heard, the lanes are impossible.

I'm gonna golf again on Sunday morning, hope it goes better than yesterday. Cdubya is always great at not giving me grief about golfing so much. She knows how much I love it and as long as I find a way to get what needs to get done finished she never says a word about it.

Got home last night and Cdubya told me that the vet called and Sazi's ashes are ready to be picked up. That led to her crying again for another hour. Then she says she's been thinking about a new dog and what kind of dog would be a good companion for Delaney. I really do not want another dog. 1 is enough. I told her that there's never going to be another Sazi, and of course she began crying again. I don't think I'm going to win this. I really don't want to get another dog. I think it's definitely too early but I don't know how to get her to see things my way.

Golf league begins

First an update on Sazi. I want to thank everyone for the well wishes and condolences. That meant a lot to me and I do appreciate it and it helped me through a rough stretch. Delaney is still a bit of a mess, especially during down times when we're not actively playing with her. She's a little blue and doesn't understand. I imagine that over time she will get over it and move on.

Again, thanks everyone.

Now onto golf league, which began last night. It might have been the most disappointing 44 I've ever shot. I easily left 6 or more shots on the course. First I missed an easy 6' birdie putt on one. Then I got frustrated on 5 after leaving a birdie putt 3' short and walked up and rammed it past the hole, leading to a bogey.
Then on 6 I hit a bad tee shot, punched out and brain farted a 90 yarder, which led to 3 more bad shots and a triple bogey. Recovered to par 7 but hit into a bunker on 8 and took 2 to get out and then went over the green leading to another triple. Capped it off by missing a 3 footer for par on 9 when I rammed it left when I should have played it slower to get the break to the right. I can easily count 6 shots that I could have taken off that score. Oh well... it's just the first night and no one did well. I did win low net for a $10 prize.

I'll be leaving at 11:30 today to go play Trappers Turn, an Andy North designed course in the Wisconsin Dells. My dad got me a free round for my birthday but I have to use it Mon-Thursday before May 15th. Hence going today. It'll be nice to get off today but that means I have to work a full day on Friday, something I'm not used to.

That's it for now, go Brewers!

Goodbye Sweet Sazi

Sazi has gone to doggy heaven where she no longer has to worry about her seizures. She can run free chasing bunnies and herding sheep with the full use of her legs again. I hope she is watching us from above and waiting for us to join her. She was a great dog and had more love in her than any dog I have ever seen. She loved to lay on the floor with us and snuggle, making soft sounds as if trying to tell you how happy she was.

We will miss her tremendously. That was the hardest decision I have ever met and up until the final moments I tried to talk myself out of it. But the agony she went through every couple of weeks was too much. I still don't know if I did it for her or for us. I tell myself that it's for the best but I still feel like there was something more I could have done for her.

We got Sazi when she was 9 months old. The original owner bought her and a sibling but decided he couldn't deal with 2 border collies (it's not easy and I don't blame him). A co-worker of his took her in but she already had another dog and was single. We saw an ad in the paper for her and went to look at her. We were looking for a companion to Delaney who is full of energy and we thought a 2nd dog would keep her more occupied. Turns out that she had already gone to live with a college student. I knew that wouldn't work so I told the previous owner to call me if it didn't work. A short time later we got the call. We fell in love with Sazi immediately.

Not long after we were startled awake by a violent shaking next to the bed. Our new baby was having seizures. We were freaked out as you can imagine. We went to the vet and were told she probably had epilepsy and it's not uncommon for the breed. We were devastated. We were given some drugs to give her.

A couple months later she started having seizures in the morning and wouldn't stop. We had to rush her to the vet. Her temperature was in the danger zone and he had to put her in ice and give her IV valium to stop the seizures. She had been in one grand mal seizure for 2 hours. She was never the same again. She lost much of the use of her back legs. We took her to the UW Vet school to have specialists look at her to see if there was more we could do. They gave her another drug to try which seemed to help. In the meantime we also found out that her sibling had epilepsy too.

There was nothing more we could do for her than to continue to medicate her and watch her blood levels, continually adjusting the medication. With all the meds, she became lethargic, put on extra weight and couldn't really do much. This continued for the last 4 years.

Sazi loved to lay in the shade in the grass and just watch the world go by. Occasionally she would join in while Delaney and I played frisbee. She was never very good at catching it but she was great and bringing it back and lying down next to me with it in her mouth.

I will never forget the way she looked in your eyes with so much love in her heart. She will be missed forever. Rest in peace sweet Sazi.